1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical disc drive for playing back or recording and playing back an optical disc and a method of compensating the time information obtained from the optical disc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are known optical disc drives for recording and playing back a recordable-type optical disc such as a CD-R (CD-Recordable), examples of which include CD-R drives.
In such optical discs to which data can be newly written and from which the written data can be read out, there are formed a spiral pre-groove (WOBBLE). The pre-groove meanders at a predetermined frequency, and ATIP (Absolute Time In Pre-groove) information (time information) is recorded with the pre-groove.
In these optical disc drives, a WOBBLE signal is obtained from reflected light from the pre-groove, and then ATIP information is obtained (extracted) from the WOBBLE signal. The time information in the ATIP information is utilized to specify a position on the optical disc (determined by the absolute time) or the like.
However, the time information is likely to be deteriorated due to noises from the circuits or flaws or dusts on the disc or the like, because the time information is obtained from the WOBBLE signal. Therefore, there is a case that it is not possible to acquire time information, so that time information is missing (by which continuousness of the time information is lost).
When such missing of time information would occur, the control means in the optical disc drive can not acuire the absolute time at that position. As a result, there is a case that it is not possible to specify a recording start position (a recording start time) or a recording end position (recording end time) or the like when a recording is to be carried out onto the optical disc. Further, when the recording start position or the recording end position is not specified, there arises a case that recording is carried out over the recording start time or the recording end time. Furthermore, at the worst, there is a case that recording can not be carried out at all.